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Thank You to my Secret Santas

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This year I officially have the Christmas spirit!

The past 3 years it was a little muted because I was working in retail and the holiday season is literally the worst time of year for that job. This year I have baked oodles of cookies, bought all sorts of fun gifts, made Christmas cards with the kids for the less fortunate, and have been blaring Christmas carols since before Thanksgiving (don’t judge me!). It has been A-MAZ-ING!

With this excessive Christmas spirit has come my overly zealous joining of Secret Santas and Swaps tee-hee! Typically I join 1 or 2, but this year I joined 3 and hosted 1…WHAT?!

#MerryandBrightGS

First I was trolling around the internet and I came across Bailey Jean Robert of Brave Love Blog’s Merry & Bright Swap. I had seen a few swaps around the internet (and mostly on Instagram actually) but had yet to participate so I decided to join!

I got matched up with Carrington Fussell and I cannot express how adorable she is! She is a Target, Starbucks, and coffee loving mama like myself and I had a blast choosing her gifts. I sent her some notebooks, pens, candies, earrings, and a dinosaur toy for her son! It was fun packaging everything up and choosing amazing things for her! In return I got cookie cutters, Christmas kitchen Towels, candy, a delicious candle, and a squished Santa mug! It was perfect!

#3DayTweeps

I have done this swap for the past 4ish years with my group of 3 Day Warriors. We all originally met on Twitter in support of the Susan G Komen 3 Day and have since become friends IRL (in real life). They have been crazy supportive with everything and I believe are forever friends!

This year I drew Jay Furr . Jay has been super involved in the community and typically participates in 2-3 events each year either as a walker of crew! He also has a job that requires him to travel a lot so I decided to load him up with some loose tea, a tea strainer, and a new to-go mug…oh and some candy for good measure!

The person who drew me was Brandee Holland and man did she hit the jackpot with my gift!! I had put a bunch of cookbooks on my wish list and she got me THIS Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck!! This cookbook is amazing. It contains a TON of vegetarian recipes which is perfect because the doctor told hubs to cut out meat and up the veggies! I cannot wait to try these recipes….WARNING: It you have a problem with language SKIP this book!

#SharingCookies14

Then I decided to host a virtual Secret Santa style Cookie Swap with Julie over at Girl on the Move ! I made my signature/family favorite Peanut Butter Blossoms to send out and received the most AMAZING gingerbread cookie stars in return! You can see Dana’s post about shipping out the cookies HERE. I can attest that her method of shipping was PERFECT! Not a broken cookie in the bunch!

Oh, and I sent Leah a super cute blog planner from Heart and Arrow Design over on Etsy.

Please be sure to check out some of the bloggers that participated in these exchanges with me! They are all truly amazing and so nice. Also, sorry for the lack of pictures!! I get really excited when packages come in the mail and forgot to take good ones of anything! LOL

This has been the funnest Christmas season so far and it is only going to get better! Our family is loading in the car hitting the road for an epic holiday roadtrip! We will be armed with devices, books, and lots of yummy snacks (muffins and pepperoni rolls, anyone?) to make the 12ish hours tolerable with 3 kiddos.

Did you participate in any Secret Santa’s of Swaps this year? Which is more fun, the giving or the receiving?

I didnt do any Secret Santa or White elephant gift exchanges this year but they are so much fun! I love the idea of exchanging gifts with other bloggers so definitely and idea for next year! I have always wanted to host a cookie exchange!

Thanks for sharing this on Traffic Jam Weekend! I did a gift exchange on Rx Fitness Lady’s blog last Christmas. It was great. She matched up bloggers and we sent gifts to each other prior to Christmas. Then we had a reveal day where we opened our gift and then shared a post about the experience.